Tom Van Amburg died yesterday in Los Angeles after a short illness. He was 83. Van Amburg is remembered as a trailblazing Los Angeles TV executive whose innovations drove KABC to the top and launched Regis Philbin as a morning talk show fixture.
He is also the father of Apple TV+ head of worldwide video Zack Van Amburg and marketing executive Chris Van Amburg. Van Amburg was best known for his tenure as the General Manager of ABC’s flagship O&O television station KABC-TV in Los Angeles.
He took on that role in 1981 and under his stewardship KABC became the number one broadcast news station and a most trusted news source in Southern California.
Programming innovations included shepherding the era of local original programming in all day-parts, that included A.M. Los Angeles with Regis Philbin, as well as afternoon talk shows like 330 and early evening franchise hits such as Eye on L.A.
Read more on deadline.com